Monitoring the Pulse of Health Care and Life Sciences
Below is an excerpt of a contributed article co-authored with Robinson+Cole Business Litigation Group partner Seth Orkand published in Medical Economics on July 27, 2021.
How a hodgepodge of federal and state telehealth waivers creates compliance concerns for providers practicing across state lines.
In response to the devastating COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the federal government
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Excerpt of a contributed article published in Medical Economics on November 3, 2020.
These waivers could lead to lasting flexibilities for physicians — if a few bad apples don’t spoil the bunch
On October 19, 2020, the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) highlighted recent actions taken by the federal government…
On April 3, 2020 the Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a Policy Statement to notify health care providers and other parties subject to the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) that the OIG will not impose administrative sanctions for potential AKS violations for COVID-19-related arrangements that are covered by some – but not all – of the Blanket Waivers of the Physician Self-Referral (Stark) Law issued on March 30 (see here for our analysis of the Blanket Waivers).
Continue Reading OIG Will Not Impose Administrative Sanctions for AKS Violations for Conduct Covered by Certain Blanket Waivers of the Stark Law
On March 30th, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued blanket waivers (Blanket Waivers) of sanctions under the federal physician self-referral law (Stark Law) to relax regulatory requirements related to health care providers’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Blanket Waivers were issued under the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary’s authority in Section 1135 of the Social Security Act to ensure that (i) sufficient health care items and services are available to federal health care program beneficiaries, and (ii) health care providers are reimbursed for providing such health care items and services while addressing the COVID-19 crisis. The Blanket Waivers apply to remuneration that is between an entity (as defined under the Stark Law) and (1) a physician, (2) the physician organization in whose shoes the physician stands (under 42 C.F.R. 411.354(c)) or (3) the physician’s immediate family member.
Continue Reading CMS Issues Blanket Waivers of Physician Self Referral (Stark) Law Penalties to Support COVID-19 Response Efforts
